War Games and Other Stupid Tricks

Growing up in what was basically the wilderness back in the 60′s and 70′s, there was still a lot of undeveloped land surrounding neighborhoods of homes. Much of the land was undeveloped because it was a flood plain for the mighty Dupage River, so it flooded a couple times every year. This area gave us plenty of places to go to get stoned and do some things that in hindsight were actually quite dangerous.

Since the open areas that were not forested would often flood, a reed like plant would grow that we called cat tails or pussy willows. During the summer, these plants would grow thickly and provided the perfect place to catch a buzz away from the prying eyes of our nonsmoking peers and our parents. Many of the kids who didn’t smoke wouldn’t go into the forests or fields because for some reason they were afraid of us.

Toward the end of the summer the cat tails would start dying and when they dried out they could easily be pulled from the ground.  Some would come out of the ground with large clumps of dirt and these would become hand grenades in our war games. Some would come out with no dirt attached and the root end would be a point and these were used as spears in our war games, or just contests to see who could throw them farthest.

We would meet in the field after school at either the fort or just at the end of one of the streets and get stoned. Once we were nicely buzzed, we would then split into teams for the war games or just sides for the spear throwing. The war games were quite simple. One team went out into the field and found a hill or forested area to defend. The other team would then use some strategy to attack the position using spears and mud bombs.

Many times over the years, someone would get injured either from a head shot with a mud bomb or a penetration wound from one of the spears and the game would end. Most times though you would get some bruises and maybe bleed a little from your legs or arms from a spear hit. After enough people were sore, the game would end and we would smoke a little more weed for some pain relief.

In all the years we played this game, there were no serious injuries from either spear hits or bomb hits. There were 2 instances of broken bones, but they were from falls or poorly judged jumps.

War Games and Other Stupid Tricks